Adieu, ye vales, ye mountains, ftreams, and groves, 90 REMARKS. VER. 89, &c.] Thefe four laft lines allude to the several subjects of the four Paftorals, and to the several scenes of them, particularized before in each. POPE. The Sycophancy of A. Phillips, who had prejudiced Mr. Addison against Pope, occafioned thofe papers in the Guardian, written by the latter, in which there is an ironical preference given to the Paftorals of Phillips, above his own; in order to fupport the profound judgment of thofe who could not distinguish between the rural and the ruftic; and, on that account, condemned the Paftorals of Pope for wanting fimplicity. These papers were fent by an unknown hand to Steele, and the irony escaping him, he communicated them to Mr. Pope, declaring he would never publish any paper, where one of the Club was complimented at the expence of another. Pope told him he was too delicate, and infifted that the papers should be published in the Guardian. They were fo. And the pleafantry efcaped all but Addison: who, taking Pope afide, faid to him in his agreeable manner, You have put your friends here in a very ridiculous light, as will be feen when it is understood, as it must foon be, that you was only laughing at the admirers of Phillips. But this ill conduct of Phillips occafioned a more open ridicule of his Paftorals, in the mock poem called the Shepherd's Week, written by Gay. But, though more open, the object of it was ill understood by thofe who were ftrangers to the quarrel. These miftook the Shepherd's Week for a Burlefque of Virgil's Patorals. How far this goes towards a vindication of Phillips's fimple -painting, let others judge. WARBURTON. A mixture of British and Grecian ideas may juftly be deemed a blemish in these Paftorals: and propriety is certainly violated, when he couples Pactolus with Thames, and Windfor with Hybla. VOL. I. H Hybla. Complaints of immoderate heat, and wishes to be conveyed to cooling caverns, when uttered by the inhabitants of Greece, have a decorum and confiftency, which they totally lose in the character of a British fhepherd: and Theocritus, during the ardors of Sirius, muft have heard the murmurings of a brook, and the whispers of a pine, with more home felt pleasure, than Pope could poffibly experience upon the fame occafion. We can never completely relish, or adequately understand any author, especially any ancient, except we keep in our eye his climate, his country, and his age. Pope himself informs us, in a note, that he judiciously omitted the following verse," And lift'ning wolves grow milder as they hear, on account of the abfurdity, which Spenfer overlooked, of introducing wolves into England. But on this principle, which is certainly a just one, may it not be afked why he fhould fpeak, the scene lying in Windfor Forest, of the fultry Sirius, of the grateful clusters of grapes, of a pipe of reeds, the antique fiftula, of thanking Ceres for a plentiful harvest, of the jacrifice of lambs, with many other inftances that might be adduced to this purpose. That Pope however was fenfible of the importance of adapting images to the scene of action, is obvious from the following example of his judgment; for in tranflating Audiit Eurotas, juffitque ediscere Lauros, he has dexterously dropt the laurels appropriated to Eurotas, as he is fpeaking of the river Thames, and has rendered it, Thames heard the numbers, as he flow'd along, And bade his Willows learn the moving fong. In the paffages which Pope has imitated from Theocritus, and from his Latin Tranflator Virgil, he has merited but little applaufe. It may not be unentertaining to fee how coldly and unpoetically Pope has copied the fubfequent appeal to the Nymphs on the death of Daphnis, in comparison of Milton on Lycidas, one of his juvenile, but one of his moft exquifite, pieces. Where were ye, Nymphs, when the remorfelefs deep For neither were ye playing on the steep Nor on the fhaggy top of Mona high, Where your old bards, the famous Druids lie; Nor yet where Deva fpreads her wizard stream. LYCIDAS. The The mention of places remarkably romantic, the fuppofed habitations of Druids, Bards, and Wizards, is far more pleafing to the imagination, than the obvious introduction of Cam and Ifis, as feats of the Muses. Upon the whole, the principal merit of these Paftorals confists in their mufical and correct verfification; mufical, to a degree of which rhyme could hardly be thought capable; and in giving the truest specimen of that harmony in English verfe, which is now become indifpenfably neceffary; and which has fo forcibly and universally influenced the public ear, as to have obliged every moderate rhymer to be at least melodious. WARTON. These observations are very juft, but Dr. Warton does not seem fufficiently to difcriminate between the foftnefs of individual lines, which is the chief merit of these Pastorals, and the general harmony of poetic numbers. Let it, however, be always remembered, that Pope gave the firft idea of mellifluence, and produced a fofter and fweeter cadence than before belonged to the English couplet. Dr. Johnson thinks it will be in vain, after Pope, to endeavour to improve the English verfification; and that it is now carried to the ne plus ultra of excellence. This is an opinion, the validity of which I must be permitted to doubt. Pope certainly gave a more correct and finished tone to the English verfification, but he sometimes wanted a variety of pause, and his nice precifion of every line, prevented, in a few inftances, a more musical flow of modulated passages. But we are to confider what he did, not, what might be done, and furely there cannot be two opinions, refpecting his improvement of the couplet, though it does not follow that his general rythm has no imperfection. Sandys, in his verfion of the Pfalms, seems to have attended more than I believe is generally imagined, to the effect of musical harmonies in the couplet. Let me not however be misunderstood, as if invariably recommending breaks :-far from it - much less, running one line into the other from carelessness, (not from attention to melody,) which is fometimes the fault of Dryden himself. If, in particular paffages, I have ventured to remark, that Pope has introduced falfe thoughts and conceits, let us remember that we ought not fo much to wonder that he admitted any, as that they were not more. Dryden's earlier poems are infinitely more vitiated in this respect. |